Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Has everyone packed away the Holidays? I did - I also packed away a few extra pounds, but I've decided not to focus on that...

After Christmas last year, by that I mean 2009, I thought it would be good fun to make a little something knitted for Christmas 2010 for a select few people on my Christmas list. There was a fair bit of knitting that went on all through last year that I never blogged about, but finally, all can be revealed.

There was only one item that seemed to be a bit of a dud, so we'll just casually get this out of the way first...

I made my boy Ian a hat. My mistake may have been the pattern, which I've made unsuccessfully for him previously, or it may have been the yarn, which appears "rainbow-y" in the original photo, but I think the red may have run during it's Eucalan bath, making the yellow into orange, and the blues a tad muddy. Suffice to say, no comment was made when opening the gift, and it sat unworn until I shoved it in a drawer the other day. I'm not taking it personally though, he did love the fish hat I made for him two years ago.

This pattern is yet another keeper from Ysolda - I haven't tried one of hers yet that I haven't loved. This pattern has instructions for three sizes - slouchy, traditional and fitted - I made the fitted version. Mum loved her tam, definitely a success!

Way back in March was when I started the first gift, a Citron Shawlette, I wasn't sure who this was going to be for, but it ended up being perfect for my closest friend, Betsy. I love this shawl pattern (I've made it twice before, both times for myself. See here and here). This one was worked in Fiddlesticks Zephyr Wool-Silk (now discontinued) in colourway Marine blue. Betsy loved this shawlette - another success!

a note: it's only the Zephyr Merino/Silk by Fiddlesticks that's been discontinued, it's still being made by JaggerSpun and Fantastic Knitting.

For Elly, I made the Felicity Cowl (the pale blue in the following photo). This pattern is lovely, knit from edge to edge instead of bottom to top, the final challenge of this pattern is grafting in garter stitch, which I accomplished with a few moments of pausing to think about what I was doing. I knit this up in Sublime Yarns cashmere Merino Silk DK. Very nice, if I do say so. Swish!

Next to Elly's cowl is one for her boyfriend, Steve. This pattern is the Caera Cowl, a pattern I used liberally leading up to Christmas. Steve's was made in a deep indigo, almost purple-blue - very lovely.

Most of the other men on the list received a Caera Cowl too. Nigel got charcoal, my brother Ian got truffle brown, Dad's was classic cream and Betsy's son Cailin got a heathered blue. Apart from Nigel those other three fellows live out on the west coast where one rarely needs a neckwarmer, but this year they've actually had snow, and some very chilly temperatures, so I've heard the gifts are getting a bit of use. Hooray!

And for Jane and her family, I made Galileo Mittens by cosmicpluto knits. This project was, by far, the most labour intensive of all the knitting. According to my ravelry records, I started this project April 7th and didn't finish until September 19th. To be fair, I worked on other projects in between, but....whooosh... I think I can knit that pattern without looking now.

They were worked up in Knitpicks Gloss Merino/Silk, in the following colours: for Jane: Winter Night (a dark navy), for Jane's hubby, Hart: Jade (a heathered teal), for Jane's eldest, Thea: Kenai (a vivid teal), and for Jane's youngest, Aaron: Dusk (a heathered navy - a colour which has since been discontinued, but was very nice none-the-less). Most importantly, they all fit. Huzzah!

And that, as they say, is all she knit.

I'm back to knitting something for myself in this new year.

New on the needles is Blackbird by Kieran Foley. This is another one of his start-from-the-bottom-up shawls where you cast on some ridiculous number of stitches (527) and then add beads on that first row...